Abstract
In the formation of the modern nation state and the social imaginary of nationalism in the nineteenth century, the media and representational practices have, among most scholars, been ascribed a prominent position. The question is, however, how have changes in media technologies, from mass media to digital and interactive personal media, impacted on the national imaginaries over the past few decades? This article discusses what happens with the social imaginaries when national(ist) symbols are reproduced through the medium of PowerPoint, as one of the main tools for constructing images of the nation in nation-branding campaigns, i.e. promotional campaigns initiated by governments in conjunction with corporate actors with the aim of producing an attractive image of a country for foreign investors and tourists. It is concluded that the representational technology of PowerPoint produces a nation as an imagined commodity rather than an imagined community.
Highlights
In the formation of the modern nation state in the nineteenth century, the media and representational practices have been ascribed a prominent position
In what way does our analysis of the role of the PowerPoint presentation in the early stages of nation-branding efforts inform our understanding of contemporary imaginaries of the nation? In order to answer this, we need to return to Akhil Gupta’s question about how later convergences between capitalism and media technologies might have changed the model of national imaginaries that Benedict Anderson understood as emanating from early print capitalism
It is a tool for convincing, instructing and synchronising actors involved in producing nation brand images, but PowerPoint has very little to do with ‘simultaneity’ as the most essential concept in the wake of Anderson’s theory of imagined communities, since the form of PowerPoint allows for very little opportunity of producing simultaneity, neither in the textual sense of ‘in the meantime’ narratives, nor in the ritualised act of national audiences being convinced of consuming the same identical content simultaneously
Summary
In the formation of the modern nation state in the nineteenth century, the media and representational practices have been ascribed a prominent position. In his seminal work on the origin and establishment of nationalism, Benedict Anderson (2006 [1991]) described how ‘print capitalism’ was a prerequisite for the formation of national consciousness and an imagined community where citizens could feel that they belonged to a greater whole. We discuss the role of newspapers, novel and presentational software such as PowerPoint technologies, representational forms and generic conventions in the constructions of national imaginaries, in order to summarise our reflections on the ways in which media technologies affect the construction of imaginaries of the nation in the conclusions
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